Ships & Modules

I understand alot of teh changes made are great, like off grid boosting.

That being said - the rorqual now faces a huge issue. The orca outperforms it and is far cheaper when the industrial core is not being used. Needless to say with the proposed changes, the rorqual will not be fitted with an industrial core even if the invulnerability function is added.

Alliances do not come to the aid of players who are mining. Playing since 2008 has proved that player behavior is always the same in this regard especially in 0.0.

Without the compression function and higher boosting power, the rorqual loses its favor completely. The proposed mining drones are not enough of an incentive to lose the 3 billion isk ship, the force multiplcation it offered as a booster in compression was its sole attractive attribute.

CCP is offering to make it invulnerable while "help" comes. Alliances do not care about their miners and certainly not enough to come help us when being hotdropped.
It's important to note that the only change that could really help rorquals stay relevant in the game is to remove the immobility from using the industrial core so that it can at least cloak or relocate in system. The drones are a cute and expensive prize and the killmail on a helpless rorqual and miners will be reason for all 0.0 alliances to ban their use altogether.

I have been explicitly told I am on my own as a miner if i use this ship.
How much damage to the industrial players will it take for CCP to understand that miners don't get help?
The invulnerability is a prolonged death sentence to a ship that has no favor without its boost increase in compression mode.

TLDR; rorqual will likely be invalid even after the rework.

They are also not finished with the re-balancing of the Rorqual. These are just the first features that have been announced, I would bet there will be some additional adjusting and fine tuning over the next several months as they really "dig" in to the re-balance.

yeah it's not finished for sure, I'm just worried (and rightfully so) that CCP will first do to rorquals what they did to supercarriers when they buffed titan doomsdays the first time. Which resulted in insanely large losses in case no one here knows what happened.
They won't really give it any balance until 6 months to a year of the ship remaining unused in the majority of space.

I think he is saying that the rorqual will become almost impossible to validate as a mining booster when the proposed "on-grid" boosting changes come into effect, because this will in fact require it to be "in the belt". However, I honestly don't think you'll see a big issue for a couple of reasons:

1. The grid is much larger now. I don't think it was mentioned how far from the miners it is limited to, but with the way the grids are working, I think you can safely sit a rorqual 1000km from your miners and actually use it as a warp-in point to get safe if reds come around. As well you should be able to outfit it with a cloak in such a case.

2. POS'es are movable (while we still have them) so really for the time it takes a pilot to anchor one, why not simply have a small POS available to deploy somewhere on-grid with an enormous or colossal anom. This way you're near a mining field that will last nearly a whole day for a lot of miners, plus you're protected.

I honestly believe that it will be very viable still, and the boost you get running the industrial core makes it worth having to accomodate the ship in some manner. I'm not sure if you can adjust fittings on the rorq without a mobile depot, but if you can't then just keep one on you, with a cloak inside, and have a policy for your members to warp at no less than 10km when safing. You can get cloaked, they can get out of the belt and bounce to a safe, and you can still make money.

Just my opinion, I mined for a long time in Providence before moving to a PvP role. I love mining, and I'm sure that the industrial arm of EVE will ensure that it continues to thrive.

also keep in mind that there are 2 kinds of hotdrops, both of which are deadly. but one of which is unavoidable

covert ops.

Really? When i visit ice belts, they are swarmed with orcas and freighters.

Anoms are different from belts, they constantly change location upon spawn, so dropping a citadel isn't a real viable choice.

Also, this could possibly trigger the end of an NRDS type environment, unless the Provi bros have a better way for securing their valuable boosters.

However, another good method to take into consideration if a rorqual is ever in a situation where a bunch of reds show up, keep a cyno ready a couple of systems away near a safe spot. Reds land on your miners, or if you feel the rorq is in danger, just light your cyno, jump it out.

they are getting buffed later and you are wrong about alliances not coming to help their miners, get a new alliance because yours is most likely ****

How to use a Rorqual right now:

Step 1, set up a safe tower for it. Make sure it's got Strontium in it.
Step 2, Put your Rorqual in there and fire up the core, then the links.
Step 3, go AFK and enjoy your mining bonuses.


How to (probably) use a Rorqual after it got reworked:

Step 1, get 20 chars into Rorquals.
Step 2, put 20 Rorquals into belts, release Drone Armada
Step 3, pull in 2-3b ISK per hour, easily replacing 5-10 Rorqs per hour in case you get ******.


Q: "HOW DO YOU BUY 10 RORQS FOR 300m ISK EACH!"?
A: You don't. You buy them for ~2b, maybe 3b with fit (if the drones are super expensive). And if you lose one, you get 1.8b ISK from the Platinum Insurance you purchased.

Q: What about hotdrops or roaming gangs?!
A: Cyno up, 1 or more carriers in, release the Fighters, blap everything.

Q: What if you don't have carriers on standby?!
A1: Mining Drones in, Sentries, Heavies, Geckos out, yell for help (say YOU tackled THEM, gets more people to you) and start clearing off hostile tackle and/or fighters.
A2: What kind of horrible alliance or corporation are you in where there's not dudes ratting away in carriers making 200m ISK / hr. Hell, even you should put one char into a Carrier and do it.


With the insane insurance payout on capitals, and fozzie saying they will be the yield-kings, there's no reason to ever be afraid that Rorqs might not end up in a good shape. They will end up in the new top bracket of AFK income, far above how carriers used to be.